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Junk food diet linked to lower IQ - study
Yahoo ^ | 2/7/11 | AFP

Posted on 02/07/2011 8:29:21 PM PST by NormsRevenge

PARIS (AFP) – Toddlers who have a diet high in processed foods may have a slightly lower IQ in later life, according to a British study described as the biggest research of its kind.

The conclusion, published on Monday, comes from a long-term investigation into 14,000 people born in western England in 1991 and 1992 whose health and well-being were monitored at the ages of three, four, seven and eight and a half.

Parents of the children were asked to fill out questionnaires that, among other things, detailed the kind of food and drink their children consumed.

Three dietary patterns emerged: one was high in processed fats and sugar; then there was a "traditional" diet high in meat and vegetables; and finally a "health-conscious" diet with lots of salad, fruit and vegetables, pasta and rice.

When the children were eight and a half, their IQ was measured using a standard tool called the Wechsler Intelligence Scale.

Of the 4,000 children for which there were complete data, there was a significant difference in IQ among those who had had the "processed" as opposed to the "health-conscious" diets in early childhood.

The 20 percent of children who ate the most processed food had an average IQ of 101 points, compared with 106 for the 20 percent of children who ate the most "health-conscious" food.

"It's a very small difference, it's not a vast difference," said one of the authors, Pauline Emmett of the School of Social and Community Medicine at the University of Bristol.

"But it does make them less able to cope with education, less able to cope with some of the things in life."

The association between IQ and nutrition is a strongly debated issue because it can be skewed by many factors, including economic and social background.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: diet; junkfood; loweriq; study
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1 posted on 02/07/2011 8:29:23 PM PST by NormsRevenge
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To: NormsRevenge

IQ leads to money-making potential which leads to wealth which leads to a better diet. DUR!


2 posted on 02/07/2011 8:31:27 PM PST by dangus ("The floor of Hell is paved with the skulls of bishops" -- St. John Crysostom ("the Golden-Mouthed"))
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To: NormsRevenge

Did they control for SES or is this yet another “discovery” that eating habits and IQs both vary across population groups?


3 posted on 02/07/2011 8:32:58 PM PST by coloradan (The US has become a banana republic, except without the bananas - or the republic.)
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To: dangus

So Koz Krazies are junk food addicts?


4 posted on 02/07/2011 8:34:32 PM PST by max americana
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To: NormsRevenge
Processed food is full of refined sugar and/or sodium.
The only store-bought cereal that should be put before a child is shredded wheat. Plain, not that sugar-coated junk.
Add banana slices, or blueberries.

I won't even get into fast-food places like McDonald's. Too many parents are too lazy to see that their children are receiving proper nutrition.

5 posted on 02/07/2011 8:35:05 PM PST by jla
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To: NormsRevenge

They ought to check whether yellow teeth is linked to any particular IQ in Britain; it seems to be pervasive. Since the Brit gummint gives everything away for free, they ought to give away a bunch of toothbrushes and toothpaste!


6 posted on 02/07/2011 8:35:16 PM PST by Rembrandt (.. AND the donkey you rode in on.)
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To: Rembrandt

No kidding. Their teeth are so yellow they could get a job at the movie theater spitting on popcorn.

And so many of them have ‘summer teeth’.

Summer here, summer there.


7 posted on 02/07/2011 8:37:44 PM PST by Cowgirl of Justice
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To: NormsRevenge

wat??? I are smart i are smart


8 posted on 02/07/2011 8:38:25 PM PST by barbarianbabs (soylent green is people)
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To: NormsRevenge

Like a 106 IQ at that age is anything to scoff at.


9 posted on 02/07/2011 8:40:41 PM PST by wastedyears (It has nothing to do with safety, and everything to do with control.)
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To: Rembrandt
Brits have crappy teeth because there is no fluoride in the water.
10 posted on 02/07/2011 8:41:35 PM PST by barbarianbabs (soylent green is people)
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To: barbarianbabs

Well, that, and Labour outlawed dentistry.


11 posted on 02/07/2011 8:44:13 PM PST by fieldmarshaldj (~"This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Amber Lamps !"~~)
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To: NormsRevenge

Now if they can figure out what is causing people to become braindead liberals we’ll have it made.


12 posted on 02/07/2011 8:44:50 PM PST by FlingWingFlyer (Why can't the Mexican government provide "a better life" for the illegal aliens? It's their job!)
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To: NormsRevenge

Geez man, are you that stupid? They're taking pictures of you!

13 posted on 02/07/2011 8:45:49 PM PST by BerryDingle (I know how to deal with communists, I still wear their scars on my back from Hollywood-Ronald Reagan)
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To: NormsRevenge
Could it be that lower-IQ parents feed their kids processed food, and also pass on their lower IQs? The problem might not be the food, it might be the parents.
14 posted on 02/07/2011 8:47:05 PM PST by JoeFromSidney (New book: RESISTANCE TO TYRANNY. A primer on armed revolt. Available form Amazon.)
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To: NormsRevenge

The entire premise of the study is absurd. Junk food isn’t a causality of lower IQ scores, it is the home life that does it. Caring parents make far more difference than where you eat. Though the argument could be made that a high junk food diet can be a sign of a lack of strong parenting and familial ties in the home. After all, no one’s at home to cook dinners, what else aren’t they doing?

Perhaps not helping a child learn? Not providing good moral guidance? Perhaps even letting a television or video game be the parent?

It is not processed sugars or corn syrups, or some genetically modified potato starch that lowers IQ, it is the lack of homelife that lets a child turn off their mind, rather than stretching it to see the limitless horizons that are out there.


15 posted on 02/07/2011 8:47:28 PM PST by kingu (Legislators should read what they write!)
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To: NormsRevenge

We are, to some point, at a collision between very real results of whole foods (whole fruits, grains, leafy vegetables and the like) which we all must admit are good and can be tasty,

versus

the Food Nazi regime that shelly fattest-ass-ever hypocrite wants to shove down the threat of everyone to show Her Power over Their Little Meaningful Lives.

As long as everyone else has a weight problem, she (shelley) doesn’t.


16 posted on 02/07/2011 8:48:17 PM PST by freedumb2003 (The TOTUS-reader is a Judas Goat, leading the American sheeple to the slaugherhouse /Parmy)
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To: fieldmarshaldj

LMAO


17 posted on 02/07/2011 8:48:48 PM PST by barbarianbabs (soylent green is people)
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To: NormsRevenge

“Three dietary patterns emerged: one was high in processed fats and sugar; then there was a “traditional” diet high in meat and vegetables; and finally a “health-conscious” diet with lots of salad, fruit and vegetables, pasta and rice.”

Three different diets and they compare only two of them. The meat and vegy diet must not have fit their preferred outcome


18 posted on 02/07/2011 8:57:52 PM PST by Lurkina.n.Learnin (Healthcare adds 16,000 new IRS agents and zero new doctors???)
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To: BerryDingle

Where’s that picture of Biden with 2 ice cream cones?


19 posted on 02/07/2011 9:06:41 PM PST by Kirkwood (Zombie Hunter)
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To: NormsRevenge

I think this is a case of umbrellas in Hong Cong are causing rain in Spain.


20 posted on 02/07/2011 9:16:09 PM PST by jonrick46 (We're being water boarded with the sewage of Fabian Socialism.)
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